Book Review: Encountering Mystery by Dale Allison

I have recently read what I consider to be one of the best books ever written on the topic of spiritual experiences. Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age by Dale Allison, a New Testament professor, at Princeton Theological Seminary, does not push one particular religious doctrine. Rather, his goal is more modest—to show that mystical experiences are prevalent throughout human history and across cultures, which implies that there is more to reality that merely the physical world.

Chapter Summaries

In chapter 1, Allison explains how the trajectory of his life was influenced by his own supernatural experience when he was sixteen years old. I will refrain from summarizing it, but here is the conclusion he draws:

My meeting with the mysterium fascinosum in 1972 is not a parenthetical moment but rather the existential center of my entire life. I have spent my days trying to understand it and all that has flowed from it. It is the experiential foundation upon which I have built everything else. It is the source of my deep-seated curiosity about all matters religious and countless affiliated topics. Without that experience, I do not know where I would be today, but my life would not, I am sure, have been the same. Ultimately, then, I am a professor at a seminary not so much because I have the requisite credentials but because the start came down one night when I was sixteen years old. (12)

This leads directly into another experience Allison had when he was twenty-three years old, which flows into a third experience in his mid-forties. He understands that these experiences can be explained by appealing to merely natural occurrences in the brain, but they have mattered to him deeply and have influenced his beliefs. In particular, he recounts four firm convictions that these moments have brought to him. This chapter influenced me to make a list of my own spiritual experiences.

Allison expands his horizons in chapter 2 by talking about the spiritual experiences of others. He introduces the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC), founded by Sir Alister Hardy at Oxford in 1969. This organization gathered and classified more than 6,000 firsthand accounts from ordinary citizens in the UK. The accounts include being overwhelmed by feelings of transcendent love, hearing a guiding voice, enjoying otherworldly music, encountering a deceased relative or friend, and feeling terrified by an evil force. Allison laments the fact that scholars ignore this data because they are committed to their materialistic paradigms. Moreover, there are many experiences that go unshared because people fear rejection, including spouses not sharing their experiences with each other. A study in the 1980s in Nottingham uncovered that 40 percent of the experiences were never shared. Likewise, scientists rarely speak about such experiences but there is an internet site where they can anonymously post their transcendent experiences: The Archives of Scientists’ Transcendent Experiences (TASTE). Sadly, many do not feel safe to share these experiences in Christian settings either. He writes, “ignoring such experiences amounts to censorship. And reflexively attributing them one and all to pathology is deplorable” (30). However, according to statistics people appear to be more willing to share these experiences over the past few decades.

Allison then recounts another personal episode—this time of supernatural evil. He woke up paralyzed, felt like he was suffocating, and sensed an evil spirit in the room. Twenty years later he had a similar experience but by that time he had read The Terror That Comes in the Night by David Hufford so he had learned that millions of others have had a similar experience. While I have not had this same sinister encounter, I have woken up out of a nightmare on several occasions in intense prayer and sensing that I was wrestling with evil. But Allison’s description especially stood out to me because two students have shared stories with me that closely parallel his.

From his study of the Newfoundland legend of the Old Hag—the evil spirit who attacks in the night—and questionnaires and interviews, Hufford discovered that many have claimed to have been hagged. In fact, “20 percent or more of North Americans confront the Old Hag at least once in a lifetime. . . We further know that the phenomenon is not peculiar to our time and place. It is rather attested cross-culturally and cross-temporally. The traditional folklore of China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Alaska, and Sweden all have their own versions of the Old Hag” (38). Hufford himself was once awaked to the sound of footsteps, paralyzed, sensed an evil presence pushing down on his chest and thought he would die. This data causes Hufford to conclude that behind the folklore lies a “real experience.” But this experience, which was once widely acknowledged, has essentially been erased. Allison says, “When the rationalists threw away the mythology, they threw away the experience” (39).

Chapter 3 opens with two personal encounters with transcendent love, called the fifth love by Mark Fox, along with brief biographical backgrounds of the experiencers. After listing eight more similar accounts in bullet point form, Allison highlights their similarities, such as love, deep emotion, and light. While the problem of evil remains a deep problem, these experiences of supernatural love can serve as “a sort of personal defeater for the skeptical conclusion that God either is not good or does not exist” (50). However, since these sublime experiences don’t come with an explanation, their interpretation is often influenced by culture and beliefs. In other words, they can be incorporated into various belief systems.

Allison then turns his attention again to terrifying supernatural experiences, including his own son’s experience. He then notes that in a study in 2000, “25 percent of the population of Great Britain claimed to have been, on one or more occasions, aware of ‘of an evil presence’” (60). Following his observation that belief in Satan as a personal being is in decline, he writes,

Maybe God is not the only reality beyond our earthly cave. Maybe additional powers exist, not all of them friendly. I seriously entertain this view, even though I disbelieve in the composite Satan of Christian history. (62)

The last comment refers to the bad exegesis behind Satan’s biblical biography. He continues,

I scruple to dismiss all experiences of transcendent evil as mental chimeras because I cannot, in good conscience, entertain a supramundane source for experiences of the fifth love yet be dogmatically closed-minded about a supramundane origin for any of the bleak experiences narrated above. How could I justify privileging some of the good experiences over all the bad ones? (63)

Chapter 4 is a fascinating reflection on prayer. As a child Allison says that he was told to pray but never taught how to pray. He then wonders what people are thinking or imagining when they pray. He sees a mental list of names arranged on a map of North America. Then he goes to each place and prays a short prayer for each person. His wife has a list of names written on a piece of paper and arranged according to needs. Others imagine people from head to toe while praying, or just their faces, or their faces with shoulders. And then there are different ways people envision God while praying. One woman holds her left hand to her left ear because talking to God is like talking on a telephone. And now some are even talking about scrolling while praying. All of this adds a unique perspective to the common topic of prayer.

After probing the content of our prayers by using survey data, Allison explores why we pray. First, based on what people have told him, people pray because it directs their minds. Even an atheist gets on his knees every night and prays for this reason. Second, people pray because they think their thoughts and feelings can affect others at a distance. Third, most pray because they believe “God answers prayer.” Allison disagrees, however, that “God answers every prayer.” Allison puts himself in a fourth group—those who pray but are confused. He then narrates a story from 1987 in which his friend who was pregnant was hospitalized after being hit by a drunk driver. Despite the many prayers offered for her from around the U.S., and despite Allison’s assurance that she would recover, she died. He says, “But, after several weeks in the hospital, Barbara and her baby went away. So too did my confidence in prayer. It has never returned” (82). And this experience with prayer is not anomalous. Nevertheless, Allison still prays.

We also pray because of the psychological benefits: “One well-known study found daily prayer to be more effective than psychotherapy for dealing with emotional distress” (84). He continues by explaining that recognizing an answer to prayer is not easy. Allison was also hit by a drunk driver, but unlike Barbara, he recovered. Was that the result of the prayers offered for him? If so, why did God not answer the prayers for Barbara? He concludes, “Whatever the explanation for our dissimilar fates, it cannot lie in prayer” (90).

While I am firm on this last point, for the rest I remain largely confused. Although I affirm that God acts in the world and that our prayers count for something, I do not know how to connect the two things—in part because I have no lucid idea as to how I might identify an act of God. (90)

Following this confession, Allison presents two captivating stories of answered prayer. The chapter concludes with how technology has affected our prayer lives. He believes, “the more screens, the less prayer” and conversely, “the more prayer, the less addiction to technology” (98).

Chapter 5 focuses on encounters with angels or angel in white (AIW) stories. As with the other chapters, Allison elaborates on a few examples. For instance, a mom watched as her young boy fell and was about to hit his head on the table but was somehow halted then stood up and continued on his way. The next day he told his mom that he had seen a beautiful lady with wings who had stopped him from falling. Also, Allison appeals to survey data: in a 2005 survey of Canadians, 5.8 percent reported seeing an angel. And he references scholarly studies, such as Seeing Angels by Emma Heathcote-James in which 350 firsthand accounts are included. Allison understands that we can easily delude ourselves, but he keeps an open mind on this issue for several reasons. For example, “many who report seeing angels are firmly convinced that they were not hallucinating. Perhaps their confident conviction counts for more than nothing.” And, “there are stories in which more than one person sees an angel” (119). Allison ends by noting two problems he has previously mentioned. First, interpreting the event is not obvious because angels don’t appear and express specific doctrines. Second, why is not everyone rescued by an angel? “Seemingly remarkable interventions occur only now and then, and no one can say why some are rescued or favored with a vision and others are not” (128).

Titled Approaching Death, chapter 6 is a reflection on unusual phenomena that occur prior to death. For example, nearing death awareness is the sense that death is drawing near, with some even predicting the day of death. Terminal lucidity is the “the (re-)emergence of normal or unusually enhanced mental abilities in dull, unconscious, or mentally ill patients shortly before death . . .” This end-of-life clarity has been expressed by patients with brain cancer and Alzheimer’s. According to the studies, terminal lucidity is a phenomenon that many hospice workers have witnessed. Conversing with deceased family members has also been noted. And these conversations may involve deathbed visions or seeing deceased people or angels or other figures. The statistics for these experiences are stable even when comparing countries as diverse as India and the U.S. Two studies in Japan revealed 21 percent and 39 percent had deathbed visions. Similar results were found in Moldova and India. When dreams were added to the mix in a study near Buffalo, New York, 88 percent reported having an end-of-life dream or vision (ELDV). Apparently deceased relatives appear to provide comfort or even serve as escorts to a new world. Sometimes, the dying even report a glimpse of another world. After such experiences, some are converted from a belief in no afterlife to a conviction that something lies beyond death.

Shared-death experiences are visions seen by both the dying and those present with them, such as a woman who saw her grandfather calling out to his deceased wife who appeared at the foot of his bed. This leads into accounts of supernal light near the dying or deceased. Even in the middle of the nineteenth century, Catherine Crowe said that “luminous emanations” are sometimes seen around dying persons (155). Allison then lists ten recent firsthand accounts of brilliant otherworldly light entering the room of the dying. Studies have revealed that this light has been witnessed by caregivers in England, the Netherlands, and Brazil. Of the 133 healthcare professionals asked in Brazil, forty-three (32 percent) reported perceiving at least once, in the last five years, ‘a radiant light’ enveloping a dying person” (157). Allison believes these unusual occurrences throughout human history have probably contributed to the universal belief in life after death.

Chapter 7 is focused on near-death experiences or NDEs. Since Raymond Moody’s 1975 book, Life After Life, we know that NDEs typically follow a pattern involving looking down on one’s body, having a life review, and encountering a brilliant light. Allison then makes the following points: (1) NDEs are real experiences, (2) not explained solely by culture, (3) experienced across the world and throughout human history, (4) expressed through human language and culture, (5) not well known in the West until the 1970s and 1980s, (6) well known in previous times, (7) do not signal pathology. Of course, Allison notes that experiencers may be mistaken, but “unless there are extenuating circumstances, we normally heed human testimony, especially when the numbers are large” (175). He then mentions three veridical cases in which details were corroborated by others: the man who knew where his dentures were placed even though he was in a coma, a woman who had a heart attack and saw a blue tennis on a ledge outside the hospital building, which was later found, and Pam Reynolds whose heart and brainwaves had ceased but who accurately reported what the doctors were doing during her operation. In total there are more than 300 such documented cases. Once again, Allison piles on the evidence, adding a list of ten examples in bullet point form. He then writes,

If all NDEs turn out to be wholly endogenous, if they are, without remainder, brain-bred hallucinations, the consequences are more than dispiriting. We would be forced to conclude that a widespread, cross-cultural human experience, one that commonly moves people to use the word ‘God’ and regularly prods them to become more loving and less selfish, an experience that far more often than not feels wholly real and indeed self-authenticating, an experience that even children only two or three years old have reported, is, at bottom, illusory. (83)

He cannot believe that our brains could be this unreliable or that God would give us such experiences only to deceive us. Moreover, NDEs are more common that people realize: “Studies have shown that 15-20 percent of those who were unconscious and near death can recollect some portion of an NDE” (185). What about the other 85 percent? Allison surmises that perhaps they were not as close to death or, he favors another possibility, they had an NDE but were unable to remember it.

He then discusses negative NDEs, which occur “less than or much less than 20 percent” of the time. These have been categorized into three types: inverse—same experience as the positive NDE but experienced negatively, void—emptiness, and the traditional hell with grotesque creatures and terror. According to the studies, anyone, regardless of religion or other character traits, is capable of having either a positive or negative NDE. Finally, Allison addresses the question of why there are differences in NDEs, noting Bruce Greyson’s suggestion that variability may be caused by differences in processing and expressing an ineffable event.

In chapter 8 Allison attempts to define rational analysis. First, he recognizes the problem with human memory and testimony but reasons, “While a single case, standing alone, may amount to little, a claim that recurs again and again is different; and recurring claims are what this book is all about” (171). Throughout the book his goal is to show the emerging patterns in the data. So, essentially, he is being rational by using the data in the way he did. Second, in arguing that there is more to reality than the physical world, he is not far off from leading neuroscientists. Here he quotes two prominent neuroscientists who reject or question the idea that consciousness is caused solely by the brain. He writes, “My view is simply that some external sources do not belong to the consensual material world, and that the ordinary senses—sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch—are not the only portals to what lies beyond” (207). So there is more to reality than what we can access with our five senses.

He then engages with a criticism that his view is too complex for modern-day materialists who hold that all numinous experiences are the result of chemicals in the brain. Even if brain stimulation can cause such events, he argues, that does not mean brain stimulation alone is the cause of all such events. “To show that X causes Z is not to establish that X alone causes Z. Perhaps Y also causes Z” (208). Near the end of the chapter Allison shares another personal story of a jar of honey in his kitchen mysteriously moving from one location to another.

In chapter 9, which is focused on theological issues, Allison emphasizes the importance of experience while addressing the concern of relativism—everyone trusting in their private experiences. He begins by suggesting that personal experiences gave rise to theological beliefs so they are foundational. And yet the specific experiences must be interpreted by our theological traditions. For instance, around the world different names are given to what Christians would call angels. So people with the same experience—seeing a being of light—must interpret it through their unique theological tradition. Likewise, different names are given to hell among various religious adherents, but Allison believes it makes sense to conclude that all the world’s hells are “partly rooted in frightening experiences” (231). He asks, “why balk at the idea that miserable experiences helped foster the conviction that death can land one in misery?” (233). In the words of David Hufford, this means that “spiritual beliefs . . . are, in part, rationally founded on experience (that is, empirically grounded).” This is a profound point because it shows that those who believe in such experiences may actually be more rational than those who reject them.

Allison’s goal has not been to “commend or criticize any particular version of the Christian faith. My aspirations are much more modest. I wish to increase awareness of certain experiences and their prevalence, venture some generalizations about them, and offer some tentative suggestions for others to ponder” (235). Moreover, those who rely on the Bible should not ignore experiential data because

large swaths of the Bible are accounts of unusual experiences and their consequences. Is there not, then, a strange disjunction between any theological project that professes to take the Bible seriously yet fails to take today’s unusual experiences seriously? (238)

Whether or not theologians and pastors engage with these accounts, they will not go away. They are happening and they are deeply meaningful to people so we should not ignore them. Further, we have been making progress in classifying such experiences.

Chapter 10 opens with Allison listening to a man share a crazy story about having a tree spirit enter him. He thought the man was psychotic and didn’t know how to help him. Allison recognizes legitimate concerns with religious experiences, including Satan disguising himself into “an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). In an endnote, he says we can recognize legitimate experiences by their fruit (Matt 7:20). Troubling cases exist due to mental disorders, but they don’t represent the majority. So how should we respond to religious experiences? First, we should listen intently. Second, assure people that they are not pathological. Many have had similar experiences. Third, we must not moralize these events by congratulating ourselves for good experiences or blaming ourselves for bad experiences. Fourth, encourage people to think about the meaning for themselves.

Since many seek experiences, Allison wisely concludes by writing, “I do not press any to hunger and thirst after the experiences I have written about. This is not a how-to book or a manual for would-be mystics. . . My aim is not to promote the production of exotic encounters . . . but to enlarge understanding, as well as to counter ill-informed prejudices” (255). Indeed, most of life is rather ordinary so hungering for the extraordinary is impractical and probably dangerous.

Review

This book explores a variety of religious experiences using personal stories and large-scale studies. These experiences include seeing supernatural light and feeling transcendent love, sensing paralyzing evil, the benefits and struggle of prayer, seeing angels, terminal lucidity, deathbed visions, and near-death experiences. Each of these experiences is an entire field of study and Allison frequently refers to books on each experience. He also notes that more experiences could have been added, but the book would have been much too long. Regarding the experiences he chose to examine, prayer seems to be unique in that it is something we do, rather than something that happens to us. The final three chapters commendably address rational and theological concerns with incorporating experiential data.

Allison’s writing is filled with in-depth content and careful reasoning. He is a thorough scholar who reads widely which shows in his extensive endnotes—a couple chapters have more than 100 endnotes each. His argumentation is sound because he handles the data fairly and addresses important questions on both sides of an issue. For example, he includes amazing answers to prayer as well as prayers that weren’t answered. He talks about the 15-20% who have NDEs then offers explanations for the majority who don’t have NDEs. Of course, more can always be said or proposed, but the point is that Allison doesn’t duck the hard questions. Chapters 8-10 are vital additions because they acknowledge legitimate concerns with experiences, such as psychotic episodes, while encouraging readers to look for patterns and the big picture in the data. Practically, it would have been helpful to hear more on how to identify legitimate experiences, but it seems that Allison thought that would have derailed him from his broader purpose—to show that these experiences are happening and they are widespread. Finally, this book is engaging because in addition to compiling dozens of supernatural experiences from others, Allison presents several of his own mystical stories. In sum, this is essential reading on a life-changing topic.